By Ginny Estupinian
A nonprofit organization by the name of Give an Hour Foundation has formed a network of about 1200 licensed professionals that have donated an hour a week to counsel service members and their families for free.
The goal of this group is to enroll 40,000 mental health professionals who will then donate their services to individual veterans, veterans groups, and their families.
Dr. Barbara Romberg, the president of the organization, has stated that among the various issues that these professionals will deal with is the serious affects of Post Traumatic Stress disorder. The goal is to not only to help veterans, but also provide support for the families. The hope is that by addressing the issues early on, PTSD does not turn into a chronic illness.
Supporting the efforts of this group is the Eli Lilly foundation who donated $1million to support the organization’s outreach programs including providing for public awareness campaigns and the recruiting of mental health professionals.
To find more information about the services as well as a potential mental health professional in your area visit www.giveanhour.org
June 2, 2008 at 7:31 pm
[...] Alicia Sparks, NAMI Affiliation Leader wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSupporting the efforts of this group is the Eli Lilly foundation who donated $1million to support the organization’s outreach programs including providing for public awareness campaigns and the recruiting of mental health professionals. … [...]
June 10, 2008 at 6:38 pm
It is a great service, just unfortunate that most of us military families…and military members are afraid to use services like that. We have to often seen negative career results from those that do utilize it. Until the stigma changes, and the corporate miliary envionment starts to see counseling as a positive outlet… the services will go underutilized by the military families at large.